Exit Stage Left

Posted on 06 Oct 2025 @ 10:12pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler

1,440 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Imposters Among Us
Location: Ready Room
Timeline: July 8, 2390 || 1300 hours

Clone Joey stood outside the ready room, her fingers hovering just a moment too long before tapping the chime on the panel. The soft tone echoed, deceptively gentle for the storm brewing in her chest. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, arms folded tightly across her uniform as if she could hold herself together by sheer force of will.

The brig hadn’t been cold, but it had felt like ice. Three hours in confinement, stripped of rank and dignity, left her with a bitter taste she couldn’t swallow. Arrested. Like a criminal, which she was, but no one knew that. At least not yet. And no one would if she had her way.

Her clone husband—Commodore Geisler—was behind that door. He had no idea just what kind of shitstorm was brewing, but he was about to as soon as she was granted entry.

Exhaustion clawed at her, but so did panic.

Harvey was sitting at the desk when the chime sounded. He'd been so focused on the reports coming from the rest of the task groups that the loud chime actually made him jump. The clone took a moment to calm himself, wipe sweat off his brow, and then corrected his posture in his seat. As soon as he felt ready, he commanded, "Come in."

A wave of relief swept across his face when he saw the person on the other side of the door was Joey. He nearly leapt out of his seat to usher her inside. The door closed, and Harvey instantly whispered, "Security cleared you?"

Joey didn’t answer right away. Her shoulders sagged, the tension she’d been holding finally cracking under the weight of the situation. She took two steps forward, then stopped—her arms limp at her sides, her eyes glassy with exhaustion. “For now,” she said, voice low and frayed. “But it’s only a matter of time before Camila finds out the truth.”

She looked at Harvey, and the mask she’d worn since the brig dissolved. Her jaw trembled, not from fear, but from the sheer pressure of holding everything together. “We’re running out of time, Harvey. And options. She’s circling. Sooner or later, she’s going to connect the dots.”

Joey moved closer, her voice dropping to a whisper. “It’s either we grab the twins and disappear on the Captain’s yacht… or we take Camila out. Her, and anyone else who’s getting too close.” She didn’t blink. Didn’t flinch. Just stared at him, waiting to see what he'd choose. Survival was key.

As much as he hated to admit Joey was right, there was still a problem. "Commodore or not, we can't just jump into a yacht or runabout. Running away will attract attention, and that's the opposite we want right now."

Harvey sighed and paced the room a bit. "What if we kill the engineer? Make it look like a suicide. You pointed all evidence to him, right? We should silence him permanently."

"There's no guarantee that will be the end of it. Besides, he's currently in the brig. We couldn't get to him even if killing him was a possibility," Joey replied as she began to pace the room about the same time he did, but in the opposite direction of his movements. The anxiety of the situation had her wanting to abandon ship regardless of how suspicious it was. "What if we released some kind of gas into the ventilation system? We render the crew unconscious, then we could escape."

A grimace shot across his face. "Then that definitely points everything at us. The moment this crew realizes what we did and where we went, they'll hunt us down. The kids will never be safe. At this point, we have to cut out the cancer until we can leave quietly."

He turned to face Joey, his face still flooded with caution. "If we can eliminate Camila, then great. But we have to give her a satisfying end, which is Frex's suicide. Can you pay him a visit? A personal interrogation of sort, and slip something fatal?"

"There's no way I can get to him before Camila does," she said, fighting back a wave of nausea. "She was preparing to interrogate him when I was released. I can imagine he would be guarded, too. He's been framed for sabotage. That doesn't warrant privacy."

He stood still for a moment before crossing his arms. Harvey's feet continued to guide his pace along the floor considering his other options. "Then we assume Frex had a feeling that he would be caught," he suggested. "Perhaps a well placed charge near the cell, one that he hoped that he could use for a breakout. Except he wasn't in the right spot when it went off and took him out in the explosion."

"I could possibly hack into one of Camila's drones and do it remotely, but I would need to get my hands on one," Joey said, but she still wasn't feeling overly optimistic about the idea. "Getting a phaser to overload wouldn't be too difficult."

"The less hacking the better," Harvey said after a wince. "Such things leave a trail, and the last thing we need is to give Camila another excuse to resume hunting." He sat down at his desk and called up schematics for the ship. "No, we need to think like an engineer, someone who can quietly manipulate the ship's systems."

"What about something electrical inside his cell?" She suggested, opting to continue to pace the floor. "Or setting off an explosion in a Jeffries tube as nearby as possible?"

The Commodore nodded, finding value in the suggestion. "Electrical inside the cell would fall in line with Frex's engineering background. Do you have a way to get something inside the cell?"

Joey shook her head. "No, but I might be able to stage something on the other side of his cell."

"It's our best shot," Harvey confirmed with a nod. "If that doesn't work, then our best bet is to scuttle the ship. We'll be able to get away in all of the confusion and can regroup after that."

At the mention of scuttling the ship, Joey stopped pacing and looked toward him. "Yes. That's a much better option. If we can cause chaos among the crew, that's how we can get off the ship."

"It'll be tricky with so many ships around us," Harvey said, calling up sensor readings of the asteroid field, the damaged starships, and the salvage errors underway. "But not impossible."

"Our chances of getting away are better than staying here and awaiting our fate," she pointed out as she began to pace again. Their situation had become very messy, and there was no doubt D'rimo would sacrifice them to achieve his goals. At this point, they were likely on their own. "I can likely set off a series of explosions around the ship. That should also cut the interrogation short and make our Chief Engineer look even more guilty."

"And I'll go ahead and start regrouping the Task Groups," Harvey stated. "If I can get us all underway in the next thirty minutes and off to warp, then it'll be easier to deal with the chaos. And, by the time that's all done, no one should have any trouble believing our story, and we can easily settle on Gavara."

"Do it. I'll what I can to rig up a series of events around the ship to cause some chaos," Clone Joey said. "We'll meet up as soon as we're underway and the crew is scurrying."

Harvey rose from behind the desk and tugged on his uniform. "Sounds good. When the time comes, I'll alert the nanny holo to move the children closer to the flight deck. That'll guarantee they get on a shuttle in time."

"Perfect," Joey said, turning to look at him one last time. "Act surprised when the damage reports start to roll in. I'll see you again soon." And with that, she turned took a deep and calming breath to steady her nerves, then vacated his office to head back out to the belly of the beast.

Alone in his office, Harvey's eyes remained fixed on the closed door panels. He took a moment to consider his next steps before straightening his uniform once more. Once the facade was back on his face, he stepped forward to pay Auxiliary Control another visit, this time with instructions to move on. Hopefully, Joey could enact their hasty plan and cause chaos before the truth could be discovered.

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